Pushpa soundtrack and other songs
It feels weird for me to write this as I haven’t done this before but Pushpa’s is the one that I enjoyed as an album after a long time. The movie is made in Telugu and dubbed for pan-India in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi. That has brought a great visibility to the movie I guess. And, first of Allu Arjun’s movies dubbed in Tamil. When it comes to lyrics, lyricist Chandrabose has written the original Telugu version and people in other languages has brought out translations very close to the Telugu version.
Haven’t watched the movie yet, but watching the trailer of Pushpa — The Rise, it looks like a movie about Sandhana Kadathal Veerappan but in Seshachalam (Tirupati) landscape. Especially when Tamil version of ‘Daakko Daakko Meka’ mentions ‘Bannari Amman Koyilu’ which is located in Satyamangalam, where Veerappan hails from. Not to deny that there were Red Sandalwood smuggling incidents happened in Tirupati for real.
Anyway, based on the trailer, what I imagine to be is, there is an underdog coolie working in Seshachalam forests to cut Red Sandalwood trees.. He gets caught by the police.. After going through lot of pain, he decides to take the lead and become a smuggler himself beating the competition and, that’s the rise of Pushpa aka Pushparaj (Pushpa ante flower kaadhu, fire raa).
**Me thinks, let’s see how much is this imagination based on trailer comes close to the real plot of the film**
Edited on 21-Dec-2021: When Tollywood lives in a world that existed decades ago…
If you’ve watched Rangasthalam, the previous movie of Director Sukumar, you’ll know he takes an age-old plot (good hero, bad villain, villain does evil to hero and hero takes revenge against villain, romance and sentiment are fillers) and makes it as an unusual commercial masala film. Let’s assume for a moment, the above turns out to be the actual story of Pushpa. And see how well the sound track supports it. It goes without saying soundtrack can’t spread the mood of the film on it is own. The lyrics has to complement the music to its fullest to make that happen. So, here is a review of the lyrics as well. Since the original lyrics were written in Telugu, the names of the soundtracks are given in Telugu below
Track #1 — Daakko Daakko Meka
The lyrics talk about forest ecosystem and survival of the fittest. While the prey would die if it gets caught by the predator, the predator would die out of hunger if it doesn’t catch the prey and that’s the universal conflict.
The roaring of human voices like a tiger makes the song intense. The tapping of woods on the floor gave me the feel that I had when I first watched ‘Kodu Pota Kondu Podu’ song from Raavanan.
Different singers have sung the song in different languages. I loved the Benny Dayal version in Tamil the most than Tamil, Telugu and Hindi versions. Haven’t listened to Kannada version yet, but the singer is Vijay Prakash there, so I’m sure it would be great too. Will save it to listen for some other day.
Track #2 — Srivalli
One of my colleagues wanted to rehearse this song to me before recording it to participate in one of the cultural fests happened recently in my company. That’s when I got to know about the song and the movie. When I listened to the song, I instantly fell in love with it. Sukumar — commercial element — romance — a not so good looking heroine — hence this song. Let’s see if the Srivalli character really carries weightage in the movie and prove my judgement wrong.
Generally Sid bro’s voice disinterests me because I feel all the songs he sing are monotonous, yet most music directors prefer to have at least one song of him in every album. I wouldn’t say he is overrated but his voice lacks soul when he is made to sing only because 2K kids love his voice. In most of the Tamil soundtracks he sang, I would say there could have definitely been a better voice hunt that would have enhanced the mood of the song. Yet, I loved some of his Telugu tracks like Inkem Inkem and Samajavaragamana.
Despite all this, Srivalli was outstanding. The way he has sung the bit “Choope Bangaramayane, Srivalli.. Maate Manickamaayane.. Choope Bangaramayane, Srivalli.. Navve Navaratnamaayane” takes a lot of effort and Sid’s classical base supports his singing well. Not an easy job. Loved it Sid bro! ❤️
This song has an interlude where DSP plays Mandolin. I love it when DSP gracefully plays Mandolin. Until couple of days back, I used to think the person in the picture frame behind him whenever he plays Mandolin must be his father 🙈. Only recently I came to know that’s Mandolin Srinivas and Devi Sri Prasad learned to play Mandolin from him. I’ve saved his Gurave Namaha tribute to Mandolin Srinivas to my ‘Watch Later’ library.
Do watch DSP playing Mandolin in ‘Yentha Sakkagunnave’ lyrical video from Rangasthalam too. Heavenly! 😇
Now, there’s something more about this song that I would like to say. When I saw Sid sang Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada versions of Srivalli, I was damn curious to listen how he sang in Hindi too. To my surprise as well as disappointment, Hindi version was sung by Javed Ali instead of Sid Sriram. Javed Ali is another great voice I love to listen. Srivalli was out of the world too. When someone sings Carnatic music, they happen to pronounce ‘LL’ (ள்) sound in SrivaLLi as ‘Zh’ (special letter in Tamil/Malayalam — ழ-or-ഴ) when they apply stress on that letter. Javed Ali has handled that situation well and kept it light when singing ‘Teri jhalak asharfi Sri VaLLi’ to make sound ‘LL’ like ‘LL’ only and not ‘Zh’. Love you Javed bro! ❤️
Track #3 — Oo Antava Oo Oo Antava
My dad is in a WhatsApp group named ‘Kaatrinile Varum Geetham’ and it seems someone wrote about the Tamil version of this song sung by Andrea there couple of days ago. That evening, he played the song at home. I was working in the other room and barely heard the lyric. But I understood it’s mood to be an item number (Yes, Sukumar’s movie). Liked the sound of the song. Cut to next day’s afternoon, I wanted to take a short break from my work and listen to some song mid-day. When I searched for this on Spotify, that’s when I came to know the movie is made in languages other than Telugu and Tamil (dubbed) too. I queued all language versions of this song.
After listening to Tamil version, I saw other versions. I didn’t know if Antava is Telugu or Anthiya is Telugu (😛) but I saw Mangli who sang Saranga Dariya with tremendous energy as singer for one of the other language soundtrack. I thought that must be Telugu version but it happened to be the Kannada version. I was curious to listen to Telugu version which was sung by a debut singer named ‘Indravati Chauhan’. Turns out Indravati is little sister of Mangli. Malayalam version (Oo Chollunno Oo Oo Chollunno) is sung by my 6th Chella Kutti, Ramya Nambeesan. Hindi version is sung by someone called Kanika Kapoor whom I haven’t heard of before.
Hindi version wasn’t captivating me much but loved all other language version. If I am to choose the one that I liked the most of all the versions, I would choose the Telugu version sung by Indravati. I’ll tell you why. The song is an item number and the lyrics is penned in such a way that a girl explains reasons why ‘all men are same’.
I don’t have so great opinion about item numbers or the lyrics that men pen down for it (see how a woman pens down an item number — Neruppe Sikki Mukki Neruppe by Thamarai), but I felt Telugu version sung by Indravati Chauhan was the best. Lyrical video of this song in every language has a bit at the end where we see each of those singers singing (Andrea’s is missing in Tamil lyrical video though). Be it the body language or the vocal expressions, Indravati’s stand out and turns out to be a cutesy. Others' sounds like they consciously avoided erotic expression while Indravati’s sound like an appreciation of singing item number as an art and expresses erotica very charmingly both vocally and facially. Skip to 3:15 in the Telugu lyrical and see it for yourselves 😊
In the Tamil version of the song, ‘all men are the same' is conveyed in an implicit yet strong manner. “Velakka Anacha Podhum Yellam… Velakka Anacha Podhum Yellam Velakkamaarum Onnu Dhaanga”
Track #4 — Saami Saami
I think this is the most popular song from the album. I first heard it in a friend’s WhatsApp story. But for some reason it sounded to me like a tinkered version of Yevandoi Nani Garu from Middle Class Abbayi which was also composed by DSP. I’ve heard Tamil, Telugu and Hindi versions so far and I liked Hindi version the most. Maybe because Sunidhi Chauhan has sung it.
Track #5 — Eyy Bidda Idhi Naa Adda
